A politician, a cyclist, the law
Instead of dropping the charges against former Ontario attorney-general Michael Bryant, he and his wife and any other witnesses should have testified under oath as to what happened that evening ( It Could Happen To You - editorial, May 26). It would then be up to the jury or judge to establish Mr. Bryant's guilt or innocence. This is the least that should have happened in the absence of that other vital witness, Darcy Sheppard.
Geoff Rytell, Toronto
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There was a telling assumption in the headline on your editorial praising the exoneration of Michael Bryant. In saying It Could Happen To You, the editorialist was clearly imagining that Globe readers are drawn from the ranks of panicky car drivers. Yet, as a daily bicycle commuter (and a faithful reader), I find myself identifying with Darcy Sheppard and worrying that it could, indeed, happen to me.
Before we spend too much more time celebrating the "just" treatment of Mr. Bryant, we might spare a moment to think about how to increase the safety and security of cyclists - about how to avoid the kind of auto-cycle altercations that always go in favour of the drivers, no matter how much goodwill or bad judgment is shown by either party.
Richard Littlemore, Nanaimo, B.C.
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Cyclists are outraged by the decision not to press charges against Michael Bryant. For the record: not this one. I have cycled to school, and then work, most days since 1976. I have seen and experienced my share of inconsiderate, and even boorish, motorists. But, from my experience, the proportion of foolhardy and aggressive cyclists is far higher. Just this week, I observed one who, confronted by an amber light, swerved across the road, jumped a curbed sidewalk, then cut diagonally onto the road that he wanted to take. All at 15-20 kilometres an hour, narrowly missing a pedestrian and, yes, myself.
Motorists hold the trump card - up to a tonne of steel - and should give cyclists respect. But to earn, and keep, that respect, cyclists must behave reasonably, too. For whatever reason, Darcy Sheppard did not. I don't see any reason for cyclists to get exercised about how things played out.
Richard Harris, Hamilton, Ont.
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Security camera footage of parts of the encounter between Michael Bryant and Darcy Sheppard is readily available on YouTube. That footage alone has generated debate online about points that were not addressed in the press briefing. A trial would have cleared the air.
John Gzowski, Toronto
A billion reasons
The $900-million for security at the G8 and G20 summits will not simply vaporize ( Canada's $1-Billion Summit - May 26). The money will spread wide and deep through the Muskoka region and greater Toronto area, to the benefit of thousands of people. The whining should stop. It's not often that any community gets such a windfall.
Les Morrison, Burlington, Ont.
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Surely the magnitude and secrecy of the almost one billion dollars in planned expenditure for security at the G8/G20 is at least as desirable a target for an audit by Sheila Fraser as are the expenses of our federal politicians.
Dale Leitch, Victoria
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Every G8/G20 nation is running absurdly high deficits. Now, we are going to spend almost $1-billion to hold two group hugs. These summits could have been held at an isolated military base for a comparative pittance - or better still, our leaders could all connect on Facebook.
David Hague, Mississauga, Ont.
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How about a change of venue? A cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico would fit the bill. Lots of security already in place, no black flies or mosquitoes. Just warn the leaders not to inhale those pungent sea breezes too deeply (Mud, Cement To Be Shot Into Oil Well - May 26).
Helen Godfrey, Toronto
Frodo's finances
Dave McGinn might want to consider another reason to simply admire, rather than use, the new credit card he received, and for keeping his other cards in the drawer until they're paid off ( How To Get Out Of Debt? Put Your Credit Card On Ice - Life, May 25). He and the credit counsellors had some great suggestions for paying down credit card debt. Here's another: Calculate the full cost of that outstanding balance. As Frodo found with the ring around his neck, the weight of outstanding credit card debt can be much heavier than it seems.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has a free online Credit Card Payment Calculator Tool at moneytools.ca. If you have a balance of $1,000 at an interest rate of 18 per cent, and you pay $100 every month, your balance will be paid in 11 months and you will pay just under $100 in interest, if you're not adding more charges. If you pay the minimum $10 a month, it will take you 10 years to pay off the balance and you will pay close to $800 in interest.
Once you have an outstanding balance, there is no grace period, so you will be charged interest on everything you put on your card.
Ursula Menke, commissioner, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
Hello: It's a chick flick
A movie that practically screams chick flick is not appreciated by The Globe's Rick Groen ( Sexless In Two Cities - May 26)? Shocking. Almost as shocking as the news that he charges it with having, um, sex, cities and clothes. Although I'll admit I don't live my life according to Carrie Bradshaw, and waited to rent the first Sex and the City, even I can see that the flagship film for feminine fashion, fun and frivolity will be best understood - and therefore best evaluated - by, well, a woman.
Deanna Soloninka, Toronto
Requiem for a lowered flag
I write in a private capacity, but my background is that of a teaching historian of Canada, the current Registrar of Trinity College, and thrice a graduate of the University of Toronto. The university's decision to, for all intents and purposes, close during the G20 conference, reflects the university's assessment of the vulnerability of its services during a period of potential unrest. The act's symbolism, however, is truly appalling ( U Of T To Shut Down During G20 Summit - May 25).
When I think of symbolic moments in the evolution of Canada as a civil society, I include U of T's refusal to sack Prof. Frank Underhill in wartime, and Trinity's similar response to political pressure regarding Prof. George Grube. I think of campus debate about social and international issues, of this university's place in Canadian letters and as an educator of society's leaders.
This university is physically vulnerable and properly may reduce services to protect staff and students. But to conclude that a university must simply be closed for all purposes, surely that ought to be front-page news. A university feels exposed precisely because it symbolizes free inquiry, but its promise to society is that it flies this flag in every wind. Although a closure's inconveniences may be local and temporary, their implications are neither. Sadly, my university and country have been diminished.
Is a page 12 news item to be the only requiem?
Bruce Bowden, Port Hope, Ont.
This governance thing
How wonderful that the Conservatives have discovered Parliament's hallowed tradition of ministerial responsibility ( Tories Defy Commons, Send Baird Instead Of PM's Spokesman - May 26). Unfortunately, the whiff of opportunism and self-interest is rank with this stunt to protect themselves. Canadians still recall the way in which former natural resources minister Gary Lunn and Stephen Harper released the hounds on Linda Keen and then fired her from her position as head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
In this instance, both of the components of ministerial responsibility - a minister being responsible for the actions in his or her department, and of answerability to Parliament for government actions - were tossed aside by a government that continues to have problems understanding this whole governance thing.
Andrew Dzuba, Ottawa
Radium contamination
In the obituary for Jane Glassco (May 26), reference is made to her story in the early 1980s about a housing development in Toronto "built knowingly over an abandoned nuclear waste dump." I became responsible for the management of the radium contamination at the Scarborough site while I was an employee of the Atomic Energy Control Board. This site had been surveyed for radioactivity some months earlier by the AECB, using knowledge of the activities of a person who had had a small laboratory on the site before its development for housing. This person had obtained a small quantity of radium and was experimenting with its use for other purposes and for export to the U.S. as an anti-cancer "drug." Quantities were very small - hardly a nuclear waste dump, a very pejorative term in today's context.
Roger Eaton, Nepean, Ont.
Scoring on a balance sheet
Re What's An NHL Franchise Worth? (May 25): Perhaps the question reveals something about the state of the economy today, since the answer always was, and always will be, " What you can get for it."
Richard Seymour, Brechin, Ont.